


Small Step

by vinegardog



Category: Farscape
Genre: F/M, Fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-08
Updated: 2012-06-08
Packaged: 2017-11-07 07:18:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/428374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinegardog/pseuds/vinegardog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How the end of OOTM plays out in my mind</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Step

Setting/Spoilers: set at the end of the Out of their Minds episode in Season 2 – spoilers for the entire episode and for some events that occurred in Season 1. This conclusion is totally canon in my head – I can’t even conceive anything else might have happened!

Disclaimer: the characters are not mine but belong to the Jim Henson Company. Some lines are quoted directly from the episode.

The cliché used: One small step for man, a giant leap for humankind.

Rated NC-17 for the botched up attempt at some sexy scenes, which I am not comfortable writing and I am sure you will not be comfortable reading! However back then I promised some friends that I would attempt it and here is the result: my one and only foray into proper smut (with a romantic edge to it because I cannot help it!).

Since this was written many moons ago, I have changed it and revised it quite a bit, hopefully improving it somewhat. My profuse thanks go to SlapmasterEd for being my beta on this. He put lots and lots of work into all of it and I am really grateful because, as it turns out, he seems to be a lot more comfortable and proficient with the steamy parts than I will ever be! Thanks, Ed, you were great! 

Word count: 4172

Small Step (NC-17)

It had been one of those days…actually pretty normal by Moya’s standards but a hell of a ride for a human stranded on the far side of the galaxy. How could John have ever explained this day to his Dad, Livvy or DK? Absolutely no frelling way he could have. He could hear himself:

“Hey, guys, so do you wanna know what happened to us today? We were attacked by this alien ship commanded by two butt-ugly giant bird like creatures, really pissed at Talyn and hell bent on taking revenge on Moya. Our patched up, crappy defence screen malfunctioned when hit by their weapon and our minds jumped from our own body into another crew member’s body….TWICE!”

A straight jacket for you, Johnny boy, thank you very much!

And yet that is exactly what had happened to them. He knew that, as things went, it could have been worse: they could have been tortured or killed. In the immortal words of Monty Python always look on the bright side of life, right?

Was he moaning again? Hell yeah, he was. If he wanted to be totally honest though, the day had also been kinda cool. Well, maybe not the part about being in Rygel’s body. Seriously, the powers of the universe must have been on LSD when they created Hynerians! Short stubby arms and legs, three rumbling stomachs and a set of bodily urges that would disgust a house full of drunken frat guys. While he was trapped in the little slug’s body, he had promised himself that, if things ever went back to normal, he would cut Rygel some slack next time he vented one of his disgusting exhalations… or at least he would try a little harder than normal!

The most interesting part of the whole messy day had been spending time in Aeryn’s body. Man, was that enlightening! What guy hasn’t dreamed of trying it at least once, especially in a smoking body like hers? 

Did he feel a little guilty for taking advantage of the situation in the neural cluster? Maybe just a little. Ah, who was he kidding? He didn’t feel guilty at all! Okay, it wasn’t something he would have boasted about to his mom or grandma but, hey, he could have done a lot worse, so all things considered he was pretty proud of himself! True, he had been caught red-handed before he had gotten very far, but he really wanted to believe that his Southern up-bringing would have kicked in sooner rather than later and that he would have put a stop to it himself before pushing it across the line into total indecency.

John liked these rare moments on Moya. 

After a frelled up day, which for a change had ended up pretty well, he found himself sitting right outside command with Aeryn sitting just across from him. Thoughts of the day’s events were swirling in his head but, without doubt, it was the moment just after they had been returned to their respective bodies that he would remember the longest. Aeryn had been so relieved when she had realised he had been joking about still being Rygel that she had shared a great big laugh with him followed by a fun tumble on the floor, elation about being back to normal coursing through their veins like a drug. God he liked this girl! When she smiled, his gut just twisted itself into knots and in the rare moments she let go of her guardedness and self–control, she made his knees go weak. 

He had never felt so vulnerable, defenceless, frustrated, protective and crazy about a woman before. Of course he had felt all of those feelings at one time or another before for various girlfriends down through the years but he had never felt all of them together, at the same time, jumbled up in the same mind blowing bundle as they were now for this spectacularly maddening woman. 

For a while now he had been saying to himself that the extraordinary circumstances of his being here on Moya and the frelled up life he had been thrust into conspired to make him want to grasp at anything that might offer him a sense of normalcy, a sanity that had been wrenched from his existence. He had tried to convince himself that his mind was tricking him into believing that he was in love, because that was the expected thing for a guy his age. The problem was, even he had quit believing it. He was too honest and too intelligent to keep lying to himself. He had finally accepted that what he felt was not a fabrication of his psyche. He had fallen in love with this woman and, God help him, he suspected it was going to be the roller coaster ride of his life. 

And now here they were, John was gazing at her across the corridor and hoping that maybe, just maybe, one day he might get a chance to win her over. But no matter how hopeful he was, he couldn’t forget all the times that he had tossed and turned in his bed feeling dejected and rejected after a particularly snotty remark or dismissal from her, despairing that she would ever feel even close to the way he did.

His musings were interrupted by Chiana and D’Argo’s footsteps getting closer and closer to where he and Aeryn were sitting in companionable silence. The Luxan and the Nebari had been on command going through the earlier events. The body swapping experience had left them all quite upside down and inside out and, he guessed, they had been hashing out the weird experiences of the day. Their voices had floated out to where he and Aeryn were sitting and they had overheard D’Argo say:

“I-I really like your body.”

And Chiana’s provocative reply : “You like my body? 

It sounded like D’Argo might get lucky tonight! His Luxan friend might be big and strong but John had the feeling Chiana was going to make mincemeat of him before the night was out! 

Aeryn watched them pass as they clearly headed towards the sleeping tier with a thoughtful look on her face. She looked over at John and broke the silence:

“Well. They certainly seem to be readjusting well.”

He kept noncommittal and said “Uh-huh. Well, they say you have to walk a mile in someone’s shoes to understand them.”

“I certainly know what you were doing when you were in my shoes Crichton.” Aeryn teased him.

All he could say to that was: “Give me a break!”

Aeryn grinned. “It's okay. It's okay, you know? You were in my shoes, I was in your pants...” then she got up and started walking away from him. 

That was a remark so unlike her that all John could say was "’Scuse me?” He was almost choking at this point but his breath left him completely when she stopped, looked back at him over her shoulder and gave him a really meaningful smile.

Any other woman had given him THAT smile, John knew he would have been in there, no doubt, score! But Aeryn? Was he imagining this? Hell no, she really was looking back at him and that expression on her face was definitely an open invitation to follow her.

‘Thank you Halosians,’ he thought in the span of a microt ‘you may be ugly and nasty but if this is the result, I’ll forever be in your debt!’

A silly choked up noise escaped John’s throat as he got up to follow her. However, as he moved, Aeryn sprinted away down Moyas corridor, a loud throaty laugh accompanying her dash away from him. They were halfway back to the sleeping tier before John caught up to her. He managed to grab her by the elbow and pull her around, their combined momentum resulting in her crashing into his chest as he went spinning into the bulkhead, Aeryn clutched in his arms. She again smiled at him in that impish, rare way of hers and he felt lost. Lost in those flinty grey eyes. Lost in that blinding smile. Lost like he had never felt lost before. 

He slowly bent his head and his lips brushed against hers, tentatively at first and then a little more forcefully. Her lips were soft and moist and he couldn’t help but bring up his hands to frame her face mainly because he wanted to feel her skin under his touch but also because he didn’t want her to move away. He thought, as if thinking it might somehow make it come true ‘Please, please, Aeryn, don’t push me away!’

He closed his eyes and tried to make her feel just how much he wanted her, how much he wanted her to want this…him. After a small hesitation that to John felt like an eternity, Aeryn gave in and parted her lips letting him in. Their tongues intertwined and John wished for that moment to go on forever. He was sure she could feel his need and desire pressed hard against her lower belly and yet she still did not move away. On the contrary, if that was even possible, she pressed herself a little closer, a mewing sound escaping her throat. Blood pounded through John’s body and a strangled groan escaped his throat against her lips. It was the type of sound which he would have normally been embarrassed about but which at that moment barely registered with him.

When they both were finally forced to come up for air, Aeryn took him by the hand and pulled him towards her quarters, her mind obviously made up. His own were further down the tier and felt like they might as well be a million metras away, so he found himself wholeheartedly agreeing with her practical choice. 

John had wanted this for the longest time, almost since the very first time he had met her, beating up and rib kicking notwithstanding! 

Of course he was not forgetting what had happened on the Ancients’ Earth. But somehow as good as that had been, it had felt surreal, almost like a dream. The need for each other at that point in time had mainly stemmed from the fact that they both thought they had reached the end of the road. Aeryn had been adamant she would not let herself be recaptured and all his dreams of a happy return home had been shattered, so they had comforted each other in the only way they knew how. The next morning however, in spite of his hesitant attempts, Aeryn had shut him out again and, with typical Peacekeeper determination, she had made sure that the subject had not really been broached since.

This was different. They were safe - well as safe as they could hope to be, given that they were fugitives and their lives were as frelled as frelled could be. But what mattered was that at THAT moment, they were safe and here she was pulling him into her quarters.

Distracted for a microt by these reflections, he lagged behind a little. Aeryn impatiently pulled on his hand and turned around. She was now almost all the way across the archway into her quarters and getting pretty impatient. With a hot smile she said:

“Come on, John, what are you waiting for? I need recreation and I need it now!”

That should have been all the invitation he wanted or needed, but somehow the way she phrased it hit a discordant note in the depth of his soul and, as usual, his big mouth ran away with him before he could really stop himself:

“Aeryn, wait!” he growled as he pulled her back a little. Again John took her face in his hands and tried to kiss her to slow them down a little, to make the moment more meaningful, because, hell, this did mean a lot to him.

She tried to push him away while asking: “John, what’s wrong with you? Let’s go inside! Or would you prefer to frell out here in the corridor?” The dripping sarcasm in her question clearly conveyed her annoyance at his hesitation.

John stroked her cheek and looked straight into her eyes. He so wished for her to understand that this was more to him than just cold, impersonal Peacekeeper recreation and that it could be something more for her too if she only gave them a chance. There was so much he wanted to say but everything he thought up sounded hollow and inadequate to his own ears. Still he owed it to himself and Aeryn to try anyway:

“Aeryn, baby, of course I want to go in there with you! I want nothing more, believe me! But do you think we can maybe slow it down a little, y’know, take our time…”

He could see it in her eyes. She thought he was being weird – human weird – and maybe she was right. Aeryn got a wary look on her face and John almost started regretting saying anything at all. However, anything that ever happened between them seemed to be always on her terms and this was too important for him to just give in for the sake of a night of great sex, which was pretty much a given. But what about tomorrow? Was she going to push him away as she had done in the past? Because, for his own sanity, he was not sure he wanted to play the game if that was the way it was going to unfold again.

“What is it you want, John?” She asked, a frown marring the smoothness of her forehead. 

John knew without the shadow of a doubt that she was really trying to understand him but he also knew that this was a language she hadn’t really spoken before, a language translator microbes were useless with, a language that took time to learn. 

Shaking her head, she continued: “I really don’t understand you, I thought you would be happy…keen to do this, you have made that abundantly clear to me before!” 

“I am, Aeryn, I want this! I want it more than you can ever know!” 

She pointedly looked down at the front of his leather trousers, which were shamelessly bulging, and then up again, her nostrils flaring a little in amusement. Then with a raised eyebrow she said: “Well, I can SEE that, John!” Again she pressed herself against him knowing full well that he was a microt away from losing his will power, giving in and doing exactly as she wanted without any further talk or delay.

She lifted both her arms and slid them around his neck, her fingers playing with the back of his head, running through his short hair and sending shivers down the length of his body. Her mouth suddenly covered his as she forcefully pressed his head forward towards her. With her nose pressing against the side of his, she devoured his mouth assaulting his tongue with her own. She kissed him in a way he had never experienced before, a truly Aeryn kiss - demanding but needy, forceful but somehow also tentative, rough but sweet – yes, there was no other way to describe it other than an Aeryn kiss.

John brought his hands to the back of her leather vest and slipped them underneath against the bare skin of her back, then made a last ditch effort to pull his head back a fraction. As he tried to move, Aeryn captured his lower lip with her teeth and bit him slightly. He opened his eyes, which he had not realised he had closed in savouring the kiss, and met her eyes looking at him just a few inches away. Her pupils were a little more dilated than the dim light in Moya’s corridor should warrant and what he read in them was, yes, desire, yes, a little impatience but also an ever so slight flicker of uncertainty and vulnerability. That was what pushed him over, that touch of vulnerability. It wasn’t much, it was barely discernible but it was there and it was enough to tell him that this was a little more than primal instinctive craving to release tension and bodily fluids; this meant something to Aeryn too.

So, all misgivings finally pushed out of his mind, John picked her up, surprising her and eliciting a little squeal of alarm out of her. Her initial shock passed quickly and he felt her cling to his neck and her head come to rest on his shoulder. He cradled her in his arms and headed straight for her bed. He pressed the door command and pulled the privacy curtain down behind him with one hand in passing, all the while kissing her lips, her jaw and her neck, tantalisingly and encouragingly exposed to his lips by the deliberate tilting back of her head. He gently laid her down, her arms still firmly encircled around his neck, and bending down over her, he spread feather- light kisses all over her cheeks, lips and forehead. As he worshipped her with his mouth, John braced himself with one arm and tried with the other to pull his T-shirt out of his leather trousers and over his head. 

When Aeryn realised what he was trying to do, she sat up a little under him and with both hands took the sides of his top and pulled it up. John, never leaving her face with his eyes, lifted his arms to help her along but the tight neck of his t-shirt got snagged hard on his nose as Aeryn forcefully and impatiently pulled on it…which hurt a little and made him squeal girlishly. The stubborn piece of clothing finally popped over his head and Aeryn threw it sideways as far away from them as possible somewhere on the floor. When he scrunched up his face in pain and rubbed his nose where it hurt, she couldn’t help but giggling at his expression and previous yelp, which in turn made him giggle along. 

They looked at each other, laughing, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t so funny anymore. 

The smiles slowly left both of their faces replaced by expressions that betrayed the intense and urgent need to be with each other as well as a small amount of anxiety about wanting to please and satisfy.

John slowly unzipped her leather vest while she arched her back to make his job of slipping it off of her easier. He knew only too well from earlier that day that she was not wearing anything underneath it. His breath shortened and after giving himself a microt to just enjoy the spectacular view laid out in front of him, he lowered his head to brush one of her nipples with his lips. She gasped and held his head closer encouraging more of his exploring, an invitation that he did not need but that he didn’t hesitate to accept. 

From there getting completely out of their clothes became a matter of urgency. 

‘Leather may be comfortable and, hell, it is definitely sexy on Aeryn’ John thought frantically ‘but taking leather trousers off is a bitch of a battle!’ A battle, which, with impatient fingers on each other’s buttons and zippers, they finally won. 

After another long appreciative study of the expanse of her pale, beautiful skin, John lowered himself down over her, yearning to feel all of her naked body against his own. Before long their kissing intensified. Hands felt and stroked every inch of each other’s bodies, mouths tasted, licked, searched and pleasured. 

She tasted heady and sweet. The absurdity of the thought wasn’t lost on him but, yeah, she tasted like home. 

John didn’t know how long this mutual exploration continued for but he knew that he had to be inside her soon or he thought he might literally self-combust. Thankfully, she seemed to feel the same because just as he was about to make a desperate plea for her to let him in, she parted her long legs and wrapped them around his waist at the same time thrusting upwards and whispering in that low gravelly voice of hers “Please, John…” She didn’t have to ask twice. He ground down with his hips and all of a sudden they were locked together, her finger nails digging into his back. With elbows positioned at the side of her head to take some of his weight off of her, he kissed her neck and the sweet curve of her shoulder. While he whispered endearments in her ear, their hips moved faster and harder, falling into a blissful sustained rhythm driving them closer and closer to release. 

Just as John had pretty much exhausted all delaying tactics of recalled baseball statistics and mathematical conundrums and ruefully thought to himself ‘Yep, I’m gonna let her and myself down! Another couple of microts and it’s gonna happen!’ he felt all of her body tense and then shudder. He saw her head press back into the pillow, felt her back arch off the bed pushing her breasts hard into him, her thighs tighten their grip even more around his hips and he finally heard her call out his name over and over between ragged breaths. Her release was everything he had held on for and more. He gave just a couple of final thrusts and joined Aeryn over the cliff they had been driving toward, falling blissfully into her arms as he groaned out her name, the only thing his short-circuited brain could process.

When it was over and both of them lay panting and trying to catch their breaths, he gently leaned his forehead against hers and plunged his hands in the dishevelled locks of hair that had come loose from her ponytail and that now framed her stunning face. 

He wanted to tell her he loved her but something stopped him. He instinctively knew it was too soon for that and that her reaction would probably be to push him away and retreat into herself. So he said nothing and just enjoyed the sight of her looking back at him, a lazy, satisfied smile playing on her lips and a sweet look dancing in her eyes. 

After a short pause however, he couldn’t help but ask: “Happy?”

Her smile widened and she joked: “Reasonably!”

He laughed out loud and kissed her again first softly and then more deeply. The immediate urgency gone, they now took their time and really savoured every nuance of their touching and enjoyed teasingly playing with each other.

After a few hundred microts, they were getting worked up again and Aeryn breathlessly enquired: “Ready to go again?”

He laughed against her lips, breath mingling with hers “Almost…and you?” 

She just nodded, then a glint of mischief appeared in her eyes. She was lithe but supple and strong and she took him by surprise. With a fluid movement, she toppled him over on to his back. She was now straddling him and with amusement in her voice she said:

“Let me drive this time, after all I am the more skilled pilot!”

He reached up and held her waist with both of his hands, admiring her thick black hair now loose and cascading around her shoulders and her eyes sparkling with anticipation. He thought ‘John Crichton, you lucky son of a gun!’

After a further moment enjoying and drinking in the view of Aeryn Sun towering in all her glory over him, he joked:

“Baby, I have the feeling that after your driving I might not be able stand, let alone walk back to my quarters!” 

She joked back: “You’d better believe it, John!” Then she fell silent and stopped staring directly at him. Her eyes dropped away from his face, her hands played nervously with the hair on his chest and with a tinge of uncertainty and a small shrug she said: “I guess you could stay the night. I mean, if you wanted to...”

His heart skipped a beat: “I guess I could…actually, now that you mention it, I would like that a lot...” 

Her eyes moved back up to meet his. She gave him a long look, conveying volumes of emotions swirling around a tiny centre of what John finally recognised as relief. After the briefest of nods which revealed how the matter was now resolved in her mind, she naughtily and matter-of-factly said: “Well now that that’s settled, we can even think about a third time!” She bent down and purposefully kissed him.

Aeryn wanted him to stay with her for the entire night. 

Just before John lost himself to round two, the famous words of one of his childhood heroes flashed through his mind “One small step for man….”.

The end.


End file.
